What happens if sox and rays are tied

As the Major League Baseball playoffs were getting underway last week, the general consensus on the Boston Red Sox was that they were just lucky to be there and, accordingly, that their stay would be brief.

The Red Sox themselves, however, have never been under any obligation to cooperate with outside prognostications. And so far, they aren't. After pulling off an even more shocking upset over the win Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series, they now find themselves running hot and needing just four more wins to get to the World Series.

For Game 3 on Sunday, it was Christian Vazquez who played the hero with a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the 13th inning at Fenway Park. For Game 4 on Monday, Enrique Hernandez took his turn with a game- and series-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth:.

In all likelihood, the Red Sox will once again be underdogs whether they end up facing Chicago or Houston. But they ought to be used to that now, and there's no longer any question that they're indeed comfortable in the role.

After a last-place finish in the American League East in , the Red Sox weren't supposed to be a player in the AL playoff picture this year. If two of the Clubs have identical winning percentages, then they would follow the two-Club tiebreak rules to break their tie to pick their designation.

If all three teams have identical winning percentages, then the tiebreak rules above No. The Club with the highest winning percentage in games among the tied Clubs chooses its designation first, followed by the Club with the second-highest winning percentage and the Club with the third-highest winning percentage.

If two Clubs have identical winning percentages, then the two-Club tiebreak rules shall apply to determine which team selects its designation first. If three Clubs have identical winning percentages, then the three-Club tiebreak rules shall apply to determine which teams select their designation first.

If all four Clubs have identical winning percentages, then;. The Club with the highest winning percentage in intradivision games chooses its designation first, followed by the Club with the second-highest winning percentage and the Club with the third-highest winning percentage.

The Club with the highest winning percentage in the last half of intraleague games chooses its designation first, followed by the Club with the second-highest winning percentage and the Club with the third-highest winning percentage.

Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. The Club with the highest winning percentage in the last half plus one intraleague game, provided that such additional game was not between any of the tied Clubs, chooses its designation followed by the Club with the second-highest winning percentage and the Club with the third-highest winning percentage.

Continue to go back one intraleague game at a time until any ties have been broken. Home field advantage will be determined by the rules above for a two-team tiebreaker. The loser of the game will be declared a Wild Card. The winner would then face the Yankees in the Bronx on Tuesday night. The Blue Jays would be eliminated. If both Group 1 teams lose and only one of the Group 2 teams win, we'd have three teams tied for the two wild-card spots.

As Baccellieri writes: "A three-way tie would involve a draft of sorts—there are three different pathways for how to proceed, and the three clubs would get to pick who gets which, with the draft order determined by their head-to-head records:.

The club with the first pick would get to choose which team it wants to be: A, B or C. The roles for those designations are as follows:. In both of these permutations, the Red Sox would get the first pick in the draft, because they beat all three teams in their head-to-head series. They'd be fools not to choose Team A. The Yankees holds the head-to-head advantage over the Mariners, so they'd pick second in Permutation 1.

The Blue Jays would pick second in Permutation 2 because they won the season series vs. This situation would occur if only one of the Group 1 teams win and both Group 2 teams win. The winner of the Group 1 team would get the first wild-card spot, and host Tuesday's game, while the Group 1 loser would be tied with both the Group 2 teams for the second wild-card berth.

In this case, there would still be a draft, with the three teams picking if they want to be Team A, B or C, again. Except this time, the roles are different. But instead of the winner going directly to the wild-card game while the loser goes to play Team C, the winner will now go to play Team C, and the loser will go home.

Boston would have home-field advantage over the Blue Jays, Yankees or Mariners based on their head-to-head record. If two teams clinch the Wild Card spots with identical records, the head-to-head record determines home-field advantage for this one-game playoff game, giving Boston the advantage over those three teams. When the head-to-head records are tied, the higher winning percentage in intradivision games determines which team gets the advantage. The Red Sox have nine games remaining against divisional opponents, six of which are against the lowly Baltimore Orioles.

That should give them ample opportunity to pad their intradvisional record to expand on their comfortable lead. Boston has the easiest remaining strength of schedule in the majors with their opponents combining for a. The Red Sox kick off their final homestand of the season with a weekend series against Baltimore.

Boston is at Fenway Park this season, giving them a. They have been even more dominant at home since a slow start, going Boston would be heading to the playoffs if the season ended today but they still have 14 more games on the schedule.